Our two-and-a-half year old daughter still talks about our camping trip we took last fall to the White Mountains. In fact, she still sleeps every night with a special “camping pillow” we brought on that trip. So, we decided to camp one night in our backyard recently on a Friday night.
She was thrilled beyond all explanation. She’s been talking about it ever since.
So we set up our tent in the backyard, and I remembered to turn off the sprinklers, so we really felt like we were winning at life. We filled up the air mattress, brought out some blankets, and even ate dinner and played games in the tent before bed.
We even picked up some glow sticks, and looked at stars.
Here’s a photo of our tent in our backyard next to our saguaro cactus. The nights are now cool enough that you can sleep comfortably outdoors. I’d say April-May is the best time to do this, before it gets too hot.
Anyways, there’s an inexpensive idea for your kids. Once it warms up a bit more in the mountains, we’re planning a trip up to the rim country to go camping.